March Madness is the Super Bowl of Sports

This is my favorite time of year...March Madness. Small and mid-major conferences start their tournaments this week, with the big conferences kicking off tournaments next Thursday all leading up to the Big Dance. The first weekend of the tournament is like my birthday, New Year's, and Christmas all rolled into one. Add to it this year St. Patrick's Day falls on that Friday and that's just a recipe for disaster good times.

Why, you may ask, does the Madness afflict me so? Well that's easy:

1. This is the best sporting event of the year. 48 hours of basketball in the first four days, where it's "play or go home" for everyone. Everyone plays harder, and even if there's a blow-out, there's always three other games to watch. Not to mention the inevitable upsets and Cinderella stories. Seriously, how could you not love it?
   
   
2. Betting: bracket pools or otherwise. I would expand on this but discretion is the better part of valor. If you want more info just email me.
   
   
3. The food and drink - how can you go wrong with specials like the one below? (see Thursday below)
   
   
4. I have these days off work and am usually in a bar where there's no chance of getting cell reception. Do I have to go into what happened last year? Ok fine...
   
   ...I had the first two days off for the tournament as I traditionally do except this time I had a huge project due at the end of March. (Setting that project date was my first mistake) Suffice it to say, I ended up having to come in on BOTH days. Not only that but on Friday I ended up stuck in the server room until 9:30 p.m. I felt like Dante, "I'm not even supposed to be here today!" But I digress...
   

Luckily I have already secured March 16 and 17 (Happy Birthday Mrs. Hutchinson!) as personal days off work, so I couldn't be more excited. Traditionally the weekend is structured as such:

Thursday - 11 a.m. to 11ish p.m. - Hit Durkin's with Steve for the all you can eat and drink special. For $25 you get all you can drink domestic drafts and all the Domino's pizza you can eat. Not only that, but they also rearrange the bar so that in addition to the bar's usual TV set up, each table has its own small LCD TV with satellite hook-up.

Friday - 11 a.m. to ?? - I'll usually hit another all you can eat and drink at another bar to catch the rest of the games. Once work lets out the rest of the gang meets up and we carouse through the rest of the night.

Saturday - 11 a.m. t0 ?? - At this point the old liver is in a hurt locker and needs a bit of rest. Not to say that I'm not out watching the games somewhere, but I probably won't start drinking until later on in the afternoon. To be honest, in years past, I usually overdo it on the greasy bar food as opposed to the beer. There's something about pizza and chicken wings that I can't pass up.

Sunday - ?? - ?? - In the past my church service was always around 10 so that I could make the early game. Now it starts at 11, so either I go to the early 8:30 service or I miss the first half of the 11 o'clock game. Either way, this is a recouperation day where I usually suffer through CBS' coverage of the games.

Now, there are potential issues this year. If Team America (the volleyball team that I play on) makes it out of the first day of the play-offs, we will be playing the night of Mar. 16. This will put a severe crimp in Steve and my plans for the day, as we've been asked not to show up to any more games inebriated. Second, St. Patrick's Day is the 17th. I'm not sure how this is going to impact the proceedings, but you can bet that they will. Third, it's Lent and that will limit my meat consumption on Friday. Are you allowed to eat corned beef or not?

So, whatelse can I say? This is my favorite weekend of the year, hands down. Now if I can just find the number for that liver transplant place...